RSS FeedOtavio Reviews Vapiano! (Future Italian Restaurant In Gallery Place/Chinatown)
We send many thanks to Otavio, who is currently in Germany, for going out and reviewing the German-based Italian restaurant called Vapiano! We mentioned earlier this week that Vapiano was planning to open up at 623-625 H St NW by next February. Here is Otavio’s review:
Greetings all,
I am just returning home from my visit to Vapiano restaurant, and you would not believe my experience there.
This restaurant chain can best be described with just one word: Lame!
Vapiano restaurant is a self-serve restaurant chain out of Germany.
This particular Vapiano is in Frankfurt, Germany on Goetheplatz 1-3. It is a hit with the Germans, but I can tell you that Washington, DC has much better Italian food than this one!
Customer Service – Nil, zilch, pretty darn low. When you walk in the door, you get a card that you then take to each station to record how much and what you have purchased. You have a Salad line, a Pasta line, and a Pizza line.
This Vapiano was way too overcrowded. You have to get a tray and get into each line to get what you want. I spent 15 minutes waiting, tray in both hands, to get my salad. They prepare the dish while you wait at the counter.
Then I waited another 15 minutes to get my main dish in the pasta line. If there is a crowd of 7 people waiting in front of you, then you just stand there holding your tray until you get to the counter. In my former military days, we called this muscle failure! There is no place to rest your filled up tray while you wait in line.
If you want a pizza dish, then you have to wait in the pizza line.
So, it took me 30 minutes before I could sit down. Of course, since it was overcrowded, it took me another 10 minutes to find a seat.
Also, there is no waiter service. You also get your drink in the salad, pizza, or pasta line.
Food: It tasted like Chinese! There is no way that Italian food should be tasting like Chinese. Aweful! The salad was tasteless, and my dressing tasted like sweet and sour sauce. My pasta was dry and clumped together. Aweful!
Ok, after all of that torture was over, then you go to pay. There is a check out line! So guess what! If there is a line, as in my case, you wait another 10 minutes standing in line to pay! Terrible!
Decor/Interiro design: Simple and conservative. Of course, the German way. Gallery Place could use a bit more originality. This restaurant chain will not bring it unless they change their format for the US-based locations.
All-in-all, this restaurant chain gets a big thumbs down from me. Lame.
Washington, DC residents: Don’t get your hopes up on this one!
Again, thank you very much, Otavio! We hope the Washington, DC version of the restaurant makes some adjustments.
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Comments
This sucks, we need some sort of oversight planning board to prevent this kind of crap from coming in. We should all write them letters saying we don’t want you here….maybe it will scare them away.
I’m all for the markets determining what goes in, being a capitalist and all, but come on, I’m sure this concept will fail, then we will have to wait, yet again, for another place to go in. We should get it right the first time…plus who the heck would go to a German owned Italian restaurant….hmmm, let me think, would you go to an irish owned chinese place, or maybe a scottish owned french restaurant…come on, this is absurd, a german owned itlalian restaurant located in america….how indirect can we get…how bout just getting a nice lower priced home cookin’ italian restaurant owned and operated by real italians….like pasta mia….this is terrible: “Down with Vapianos!!!!!!!”
Aside from the lack of efficiency, this place sounds very German. Here’s hoping they have a good team to develop their brand stateside!
Anon:05:07:43: I wouldn’t pull the fire alarm just yet. Restaurant chains can be very different when they expand into different countries. They will hire a US team to create their US-based restaurant – they might even be Italian Americans! It could be that the only German element will be the money that is backing the restaurant.
They at least deserve a chance and I think it’s fun that we will be one of the first people in the country to try the restaurant out. (I won’t even start up any kind of NYC rivalry just yet)
Ruthless German efficiency? Now that is a myth. It depends on where you are in Germany also. I have lived in Germany for almost 1.5 years now. German customer service, especially at restaurants, is well below what Americans, the French, the Italians, are used to.
I don’t know……you really have to think.
A German chain is opening an Italian, yes, ITALIAN restaurant in DC. Oh my goodness!
By the way, I was born (Washington Hospital Center) and grew up in DC. Although I am not in DC full-time, I do keep up with what is going on in my favorite neighborhoods, like Gallery Place. I do visit often! I hope to return to DC, permanently, by early next year.
Despite my patience being tested at Vapiano’s here in Germany, I am wiling to give them a chance at their DC locations. Please join me in giving them a rebound shot!
I agree with GPL. Give it a chance.
It’s a good sign that it is a hit with the Germans, at least somebody like them.
Sub-par service: Welcome to DC! DC has the worst service I’ve seen in any city. Only certain high-class restaurants with motivated waiters provide acceptable service. And Potbelly’s.
If I were to open a restaurant in DC, I would open either an extremely small upscale restaurant where I could get a couple of great servers, or I’d open a large self-serve joint like this.
Getting decent-to-great food is easy, there’s lots of chefs out there who love what they do. Getting decent service staff is a whole nuther story.
Hey GP, how come my first comment never made it through? Is there some sort of censorship going on around here? I say we give this place a chance. Anonymous who wants pasta mia….give me a break. How would waiting around the block for mediocre pasta be any better?
Anon:09:39:52: There is a delay in posting comments because we have to approve them, but I don’t remember rejecting any anonymous comments recently. In the past week or so, only 2 comments have been rejected and they were both from a non-anonymous reader.
I wish Penn Quarter had more bistros. Even a place like Logan Tavern would be extremely welcome. Everything is either too precious or too overbearing.
FWIW, Vapiano is a franchise, that had the use of a chip card as central to its operation.
Here’s a link to their website explaining their franchise opportunities. http://www.vapiano.de/framemaker.php?section=programme&lang=en
It looks like the M Street location is scheduled to open first, so maybe that will help them with their inital phase in before they open in Penn Quarter.
Even if they adapt to the American market, this place sounds like a glorified sbarros or another weigh n pay…do we really want or need that in our neighborhood. As for the pasta mia comment, I’m Italian (parent’s from Sicily) and although I agree that Pasta Mia has long lines and rude service (non of which I have to wait in since I know the owners), who ever said they had mediocre food obviously knows nothing about Italian food and is clearly bitter that they were mistreated at Pasta Mia….they are rude but they have excellent “street” cooking Italian.
I wish Lebanese Taverna would open up a place in Chinatown/Gallery Place — even a “express” type restaurant like they have in Silver Spring would be fantastic. Or maybe Vace (ii) could open up downtown as another great Italian option once AV is gone. Vace’s fresh za’s and za by the slice can’t be beat.
Anon,
Maybe you should try working with your local ANC when folks like these apply for ANC approval.
“Anonymous said…
This sucks, we need some sort of oversight planning board to prevent this kind of crap from coming in. We should all write them letters saying we don’t want you here….maybe it will scare them away.”
Pasta Mia is mediocre at best and believe me I’ve had street/southern/peasant cooking and as far as I can tell you ahve to drive to Baltimore to find the good stuff. It ain’t here.
You are ridiculous if you think Pasta Mia is Mediocre…I’d say you are entitled to your opinion, but this is not opinion it is fact….by your name I assume you are from New York and like most New Yorkers have the weird idea that anything outside of your oh so wonderful state must be, by default, “mediocre.” If it’s so great then by all means go back “upstate.”
And as far as the Anon that suggested I get involved with my local ANC the next time someone like this applies for a license, where do I find out about such a process…if I knew about one I would get involved….actual advice (as opposed to condescending bs) would be nice.
Ytram, don’t we have enough “far east” delights in this neibhorhood already? Do we really need a Lebanese Taverna….hey maybe they could combine their theme with an Itlian theme and call it Hez-Bowl-A
I’d say it’s a fact that you can’t get good Italian peasant cooking in DC. Pasta Mia was mediocre last time I tried it, however I am up for the challenge and will try it again.
Wow anonymous 9/27/2006 03:07:40 PM, you sounds as rude as the people who work at Pasta Mia. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, you don’t have to start sending people back to New York. I’m not a fan of Pasta Mia, for the very reasons you suggest “long lines,” “rude service,” and the fact that you have to “know the owners” to have a good experience. I suppose this Vapiano will be the italian version of La Tasca, which is a British place that serves Spanish food. It’s better than a Vincent Orange store.
I’ve have also just returned from Germany and was so impressed with my experience at Vapiano that i started to research it on-line. I wanted to find out how to open a franchise but instead I stumbled across this…..are you guys all in the restaurant business? are you surprised there is a lack of customer service – its a self service resaturant…yes you have to wait 15 mins for your food but that is because it is all freshly prepared there and then..it is more than worth the wait. Fresh, wholesome, tasty and filling food – grab in your lunch break, before the theatre or a night out of the town. The reason the store was overcrowded is because the people love it….go figure?
I’m glad to see that all the ingredients are fresh. I say it deserves a shot! With the steadiness in poor service in Washington, DC, I almost prefer a self-service idea like this for something fast.
I have ate at the one in Ballston. It was very good and service was excellent. They bring water to you when you sit down or you can buy water/soda/wine etc… at the counter. I enjoyed delicious pasta, pizza, and salad there. I have also gone about six times and have been happy and satisfied each time. Give it a try.
It’s not a dining restaurant, it’s called “fast casual”, meaning, it’s a fast food restaurant with higher quality and prices.
Vapiano? I LOVED EVERY BITE. I was expecting a crappy Italian chain, but was pleasantly surprised. Also, you can tell the designers are european by the unique choice in decor. Incidentally, Pasta Mia has been my absolute FAVORITE DC restaurant for years–and I come from a huge Italian family. Actually the owners are from Naples. I now realize that the reason I love both places is because of how fresh the ingredients are–the key to delish european cooking.
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Yow! This “concept” sounds like a cross between a Depression-era soup kitchen and a Sbarro on qualludes. Where’s the ruthless German efficiency? I don’t know if DC’s best and brightest will wait in multiple lines for third-rate slop. Then again, there always seems to be a line at every McDonalds I’ve ever been to.